Tuesday, May 27, 2014

The Reality

This post is going to talk about real life. Now as I, and most of you, went through college we had the idea that we would be marketable, wanted, and have people asking if we wanted a job. I think most of us were under the delusion that having a degree was going to put us ahead of the game. This is still somewhat true. There have been studies that have shown the positive correlation between a person with a higher degree, better socioeconomic status, and better health. However, that is a long term study. Even though me and my classmates hold degrees we are facing unemployment. According to an article in the Huffington Post, college graduates unemployment rate is nearly 11%, doubling what is has in the past. Not to mention, 60% of us are working jobs that don't require a degree. What is up with that? I mean really? Here you have us 20-somethings, some of us have debt out the yin yang and we aren't able to find a job in the place we trained to be; the field we studied for, struggled for, and spent thousands of dollars on. So what are we left with? We're left with a minimum wage service job, living with our parents, making just enough to pay Sally Mae. It is simply ridiculous.

We were told growing up that we had to go to college because without that degree we wouldn't find a job. Funny how things turn around, huh? Instead we apply to as many jobs as we can that require our degree only to be shut-down because we don't have any experience. No we don't have experience, because we've been giving up our time and our money to make ourselves better for you! No one wants to hire a new graduate because we don't have experience but we have the most up to date knowledge, we have learned to manage our time, and we are full of new ideas that could change the outcome of the business for the better. However, that's not good enough. The question is how do we get experience without someone willing to take a risk on us and allow us to prove ourselves as an asset to the business.

Even as a recent graduate with a bachelor's in nursing it is difficult to find a job willing to hire me. I don't have the 1-2 years of experience. I don't have my license yet because I had to wait to be authorized to take the NCLEX and I have to pass, but I can assure it will be done. It's so strange to me that a hospital would rather have a nursing shortage than put the time and money into orienting a new graduate because we cost too much money, we make mistakes, we can't provide excellent care. FYI people, we're new nurses shoved into a world that we only scratched the surface of. It's really a downer. But maybe, for me, I have too high of goals. I want to work with a very specific population and that population alone. I want to work in the VA hospitals and I want it so bad the idea of working in a non-VA hospital seems ridiculous. In my situation, I am applying for jobs that are going to take a very long time to be processed, and that is just something I will probably have to accept.

Lastly, the general population really should stop calling us millennials lazy. Most of us are not lazy. I mean there are a few, but there are a few in the older generation who are far more lazy than we are. We just happened to exist in a time where it is difficult for us to find good jobs and work in a specific field. However, we also, happen to exist in a time where we had to get a better education. We may be "lazy" but we are far more educated than the youth of the past. And I don't mean that in a negative way, I am simply stating a fact that past youth didn't require further education to develop a solid career.

In a nutshell, I am just saying, Wake up employers of America! You have thousands of fresh new workers who can make your business flourish! Just take a chance on us and we won't let you down.

***Disclaimer: I understand that this is not the case 100% of the time. It is just a general trend. I know that some people were actually offered jobs before they graduated :)